We are always surprised that all our friends do not spend their
days reading picture books or books written for K-12 kids. It appears that staff here at the Doucette
are a special bunch of characters who read funny picture books, graphic novels,
teenage angst and adventure, pretty much the same way we breathe.

At this time of year especially, Tammy and I are often asked
for recommendations for good gift books for kids. We usually respond by email, listing scads of
books we love. This year, we did it up
properly and spent a whole afternoon at Chapters, searching for just right
books for all the kids in your life.
Watch for the movie version next year, as we video our frank discussion
of good and bad, interesting and not, while slurping a festive drink. The result of our one afternoon at the store
and some other recent reads will be published over the next 4 days. Day 1, today, will contain lists from Pre-K
to High School crossing into Adult books.
These books are all fiction books.

Day 1. Picture books

Middle
grade novels

Young
Adult novels

Crossovers:
adult books for teens

Books suggested on days 2 to 4 usually have more than one
grade-level attached to it and are divided into categories including “Making
and Doing, “ “Fan-based Lit,” and “Subversive Choices for the Holidays.” These
titles will be a mixture of fiction and non-fiction.

Each title is linked to the Chapters website for further
information and quick ordering if you are doing it soon. For you last minute folks, the listing will
let you know that your nearby Chapters has 0 copies but the one in Chinook has
10.

Day 2. Hard-to-buy-for

Making &Doing

Play,
Play, Play

Pretty
Pictures

Day 3. Chick lit

Guy lit

Fan-based
lit

Day 4. Christmas
books

Advice
for the ages

The subversive Grinch

Happy Holidays and enjoy your families at this special time
of year,

Tammy and Paula

DAY 4

Christmas Books

We not of
the “naughty or nice” Christmas custom but we thought we should add a couple
for good cheer.

These few titles seemed to imbue a certain anti-Christmas,
hipster vibe that didn’t necessarily fit in other categories. So if the schmaltz of the season is getting
to you one of these may be an antidote.

Boys can be
a difficult group of readers to buy for. We’ve included a few nonfiction titles
plus several books that should tickle the bathroom-humour funny bone. A couple of the books were selected with an
eye to those guys who are so into gaming that the only way to get them to read
something other than gaming manuals would be to give them books about gaming.
Good luck.

We love coffee table books so we naturally assume everyone else does, too. With that in mind we selected a variety of titles that have photographs, illustrations or maps that should capture the attention of the most inattentive viewer.

All of the following books have an interactive component. The Book with the Hole is a little off the beaten track but well worth finding as its loads of entertainment figuring out what could possibly fill that hole on each 2-page spread. Polar is also a favorite with fabulous moving images.

What a great
way to have a before bed chat with your kids or to quiet the pace during the
day. We love funny picture books but we tried to add variety to the list. Looking for a downer, they are all in YA
(young adults), not a one in Picture Books.

Okay, young people typically like stories that are intense,
suspenseful, dramatic and otherwise fraught.

Which is good because going by this list there seems to be a
fair amount of each of these. Obsessions,
dysfunctional families and mental illness predominates here. But these are the titles that are getting
rave reviews. Check The Prom Goer’s
Interstellar Excursion or Hold Me closer for lighter reads.

Picking adult books for those strong, mature readers is an
interesting exercise. We could have
listed many more but decided to just remind you of books that are kind of ‘in’
because of movie or TV tie-ins, big in publishing or was a hit with a
real-live, actual teenager.

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About Me

I am the reference coordinator at The Doucette Library of Teaching Resources, a curriculum library in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary.
I love connecting education students and teachers with engaging and exciting resources for classroom teaching. I believe that resources that get me excited (or those that get you excited) are the ones with the best potential to get kids interested in learning about - well, everything. Finding those books that connect to the real world are the ones I enjoy promoting the most.